


Give a Little

by Cheshire_Hearts



Series: Ratchet Week 2020 [5]
Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Developing Friendships, Friendship, Ratchet Week 2020, Ratchet is grumpy, Wheeljack thinks its cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24434131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheshire_Hearts/pseuds/Cheshire_Hearts
Summary: Ratchet is stubborn and often brushes others off. He’s not so good at compromising or even really talking to those trying to help him. Wheeljack guesses he just needs someone to show him how to open up and meet someone halfway.
Series: Ratchet Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759033
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Give a Little

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for Day 5 of Ratchet Week that I went with was Meeting Halfway.   
> Also, I didn't really edit this...

The roaster didn’t change no matter how often Wheeljack refreshed his datapad. He stared at it and refreshed the page one more time, just to make certain. When the words didn’t change, he reset his optics instead. Just in case. But no, the words remained the same as they had for the past hour.

His new roommate was Ratchet.

Wheeljack had only met Ratchet a handful of times throughout the war. He could also count the number of conversations they had on one servo. The most he knew about the other mech was based solely on his reputation; and the medic's reputation was a whole other box of scraplets. One that Wheeljack knew to be more truths than falsehoods. Even the Prime let Ratchet have his way more often than not.

Wheeljack couldn't help but wonder how this would turn out. He was easygoing and laid back, but that didn’t make him a pushover, it just meant he got along with most mecha. That was probably why Command wanted him to room with Ratchet while they figured out how to accommodate the surge of new mecha on the base. He was sure they could work it out, eventually.

With a sigh, Wheeljack pushed himself up from his seat and stretched. He looked around his lab once more before leaving to pack what few belongings he had in his current room. He had faith he could make things work out with Ratchet.

***

Things worked out just fine for Wheeljack and Ratchet. Sure they had a rough few couple of weeks at first, but all it took was their schedules lining up miraculously for one shared off shift and Wheeljack found out how great a mech Ratchet was. Not to mention the fact that most of the rumors about the medic were indeed true, they’d just been severely embellished to the point of sounding false. Alright, and maybe it was Wheeljack calling in a favor with a friend that got his and Ratchet’s schedules aligned.

They also started working together more often. Wheeljack learned they both forgot to recharge and fuel a lot and that Ratchet was an even bigger workaholic than Wheeljack was himself. And it turned out that Ratchet had no idea how to compromise or even meet someone halfway. He was nice enough to be somewhat flexible, but Wheeljack knew his friend was more stubborn than anyone else he’d ever met before.

Wheeljack figured he could at least help Ratchet by being a good influence and showing the mech how to compromise. Of course, he never told Ratchet about his plans and Ratchet never showed any indication of catching onto what the engineer was doing. He probably had an idea of what was going on, but he never did or said anything about it.

Even after Command figured out the room situation, Wheeljack and Ratchet still shared a habsuite. Ratchet claimed he might as well share it since he was almost never there; too busy saving dumb mech’s lives. Wheeljack didn’t care either way. He didn’t have a lot of possessions, to begin with and he enjoyed having someone else there, even if they were rarely in the hab at the same time. It was nice, knowing he had someone living with him. His old habsuite had felt so empty.

The war progressed and Wheeljack started noticing how Ratchet became more and more withdrawn, hiding away in the medbay and rarely returning to their shared room. The medic also ignored Wheeljack’s comms and any attempts to hold a conversation whenever they crossed paths. It took nearly three months before Wheeljack managed to get Ratchet alone in a room and he wasn’t about to waste any precious time.

“You need to take better care of yourself,” Wheeljack said without any preamble as he walked up to Ratchet.

“Well hello to you too, Jackie.”

“No, you’re not shrugging this off. You’re working yourself into the ground. You  _ need  _ to start taking better care of yourself.”

“I will, once everyone else stops being a bunch of dumbafts and once this war is over.” Ratchet snapped at him.

Wheeljack frowned. “So this is the example you want to set to the others? You keep telling them to take better care of themselves, but you’re a hypocrite Ratchet. You’re about ready to fall over.” Wheeljack sighed, reaching out and gently laying a servo on his friend’s shoulder. “We’re friends, Ratchet. I’m worried about you and I know you think you’re invisible. Taking a day off won’t kill you and whatever horrible thing you think is going to happen, won’t happen.”

Ratchet glared at Wheeljack and Wheeljack glared right back. They stood there for a long time, glaring at each other.

“Fine,” Ratchet finally muttered, looking away from Wheeljack and going back to the inventory datapad he was using. “I’ll take a day off.”

“That’s good, because I talked with some of the other medics and with Optimus and Prowl. You’re not allowed in the medbay tomorrow unless you’re hurt, dying, or in the event we have an emergency that requires your special touch.” 

Ratchet sputtered, spinning around and staring at Wheeljack with wide optics. The way his helm fins glowed told Ratchet the slagger was grinning under his blast mask. “You planned this.”

“Yup! I called in a few favors, not that I really needed to. As soon as I told Optimus and Prowl I had an idea to get you out of the medbay for a day, they were willing to do whatever I wanted them to.”

Ratchet couldn’t help the fond, exasperated smile that crossed his face. “Seriously, Wheeljack?”

“Yeah, you need the break. I even have the day off myself. Someone told me I need to start taking better care of myself after one of my last experiments blew up in my face.”

A sharp bark of laughter escaped Ratchet. He shook his helm at Wheeljack. “Alright fine! You win. We’ll take tomorrow off and sleep in and do nothing all day.”

“Good, and maybe you can start taking your scheduled breaks every once in a while.”

“Careful now, Jackie, we don’t want anyone to start thinking something happened to me.” Ratchet quipped.

Wheeljack just smiled, helm fins flashing happily. A lot of mech’s thought Ratchet was a lost cause, but Wheeljack knew it just took a certain amount of manipulation and letting Ratchet get comfortable enough to let his guard slip a little. After that it just came down to finding the right series of buttons to push to get your way, or at least to have Ratchet cave in a little bit. A little give was all Wheeljack needed. At least for now.


End file.
